So many people ask me about using gesso on their backgrounds or even just ask me what it is I do to my layouts. So I thought I would post a quick little tutorial on how I use gesso, paint and other mediums to create the backgrounds to my layouts.

There are a couple reasons why I am always using gesso or paint on my backgrounds. For one, I really love patterned paper, I enjoy using it more than cardstock. But papers can be so busy, or so bold and bright. I don't want the paper to add too much clutter to my design or distract from it.
Also, I just really love to paint and play with my pages! This is my way of taking a piece of patterned paper and making it my own!

Here is my cast of characters:

My gesso, Mod Podge (gel medium and the like are of course fine, this is what I had on hand), my brushes, paint glass, rags and baby wipes. My baby wipe there has actually been used and reused. I hate throwing paper products away in the name of art, which is why I use rags. When I want to use baby wipes (they lift paint and stuff so well!) I dry them out after each use and reuse them many more times. Then when I'm totally done, they are usually so pretty and colorful, I save them for a project later!

I get out my paper, which I cut down to size:

See that lovely Basic Grey paper - how pretty is that?? It's a pretty busy pattern though, with lots of colors.
Next, I want to adhere my patterned paper to my kraft paper. I think of this as reinforcement for my patterned paper. Not only does it make my layout sturdier in general, but I'm going to be painting and roughing it up, it needs to be able to handle the abuse! Sometimes, if I want the other paper to show a bit, I will use a colored cardstock, or I've even used chipboard before.

So, I put my glue on my cardstock:

I don't stress about getting mod podge on the desk, I just take a rag and wipe it up. I do make sure to wipe it up though, as it could be irritating later on if I don't!

Time to adhere the patterned paper, I rub it on well, and check the edges and add more mod podge if I need to. 

I didn't show this, but I pretty much always use a file or sandpaper to sand my edges a bit, just to make sure my edges are good and stuck. Plus I like the look.

Yay!

You can see, I let my patterned paper sit a little off on the kraft so that way the kraft would show up on the edges. Just something else I like to do. Sometimes, I sand really hard in some places if I've used a colored cardstock to allow that to show through a bit.

Ok, now I start adding gesso to my paper - I make sure my brush is just a bit damp, and I just get a little gesso. I want to work with a little bit of the paper at a time, so I have time to do what I need to without anything drying.


All I do, is paint on some gesso, then I take a rag or babywipe and lift/wipe it up. I want to rub it in a little. I don't want it to look like I just painting over top of the paper, I want it to look like the gesso is blended into the paper. Blending and making everything cohesive is probably the more important thing.
Since a baby wipe is wet, you can use it to very quickly lift more up in some spots or use a wet paintbrush to do this.

And like I said, I do this a little at a time until the whole paper is done:

I let it sit for a little bit, but since so little gesso was used, it should get pretty dry quickly. Then I decide if I'm going to do anything else to the background, add inks, paint splatters, etc.
I had some Ranger Dimensional Pearls I hadn't used in awhile, so I decided to play with those:

Just added some little swirls.
Later I decided they were just a bit too bold for me, so I sanded over the swirls and gessoed over them a bit too. That's probably important to remember - don't be set in stone with any idea, be willing to try something else, paint over something and let your idea change!

And here is my finished layout:

So, that was a little look into my process - which actually has more thought than it seems like! My main goal is to tone down my paper, make it my own, but try and keep it cohesive. I want everything to blend well so it's adding to my design, not distracting from it!
Also - think outside of the box, you don't have to use gesso to tone down your pages. If my patterned paper is more one color than the others, I may just tone it down with a color wash. Or I add some paint to my gesso. Lots of ideas and tricks with this!

Have a Happy Thursday!
Dani